Stretching for Runners on a Time Budget

SHARE

Runners tell us all the time that they’re “soooo inflexible.” Guess what: Flexibility is like anything — it takes practice. Just like increasing your mileage boosts your endurance, stretching regularly — in an intelligent way that is optimized for your sport — will improve your flexibility and aid your recovery. Wanna know the best part? As much as we’d love to see you in class daily, you don’t need a full hour or even a yoga mat to get it done. Just a few minutes a day will help keep your running legs limber and injury-free…

“What we’ve learned from Erin is simple yet powerful: there are a handful of stretches, that take less than 10 minutes total, that can radically improve your recovery and therefore your performance…”
– Sally Bergesen, Runner and Founder/CEO of Oiselle

Reclined Hero
1. Lie on your back.
2. Take your feet wider than hip’s width and let your thighs drop together (it makes a triangle shape), keeping your feet flexed.
3. See if you can take your feet another inch away from each other, so the knees might not even be touching.

Flank
1. From Reclined Hero, drop both your knees to your right.
2. Place your right foot on your left thigh and reach your left arm overhead.
3. Reach back through your left hand and reach forward through your left knee — lengthening the left side of your body (if it feels too hard to keep your right foot on the left leg or if either of your knees are uncomfortable, just rest it on the floor instead).

Pinwheel
1. Sit down and bend your knees, staggering the right leg in front of the left so that it makes a “pinwheel” shape, with a little bit of space between your right foot and your left knee.
2. Keep both feet flexed.
3. Sit up tall and turn your torso toward your right thigh, and lie down on top of it.
4. When you think you’ve found your resting point, try to lengthen your spine even more, as if you’re pulling your ribs further away from your hips.

If you’ve got 10 minutes, do both of the above sequences. Got a few more minutes to spare? Put your legs up the wall, breathe deeply, and feel ease.